Should bullying be criminalized? Question of the Week

Bullying is a serious problem in society today. Always has been, most people would say.

The Carson City Council has decided to do something about it, and gave initial approval last week to an ordinance that would criminalize bullying and make children as young as 5 years old subject to misdemeanor charges. The ordinance is up for final consideration May 20.

Under the proposed law, any child 5 to 18 who makes another person feel “terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested (in a way that) serves no legitimate purpose” would be ticketed with an infraction and fined for a first or second offense, and could face a criminal misdemeanor charge for a third offense.

Would you like to see your child branded a three-time loser with a rap sheet at the age of 5? Then you’d better not let him or her push any other kids around in Carson if this law gets final approval.

Our Question of the Week: Should bullying be criminalized?

Mike Gipson, the Carson councilman who introduced the ordinance and wants to make his city “bully-free,” cites the sad case of a high school student in Compton who had been bullied since middle school and committed suicide in a school restroom. There are equally sad cases of suicides after online bullying.

The Centers for Disease Control has reported that bullying can result in physical injury, social and emotional distress, increased depression, anxiety, problems at school and trouble sleeping. Twenty percent of high school students said they had been bullied at school in the previous year in a 2011 CDC study.

But some people say that standing up to a bully is a rite of passage, especially for boys, and that city government should stay out of it.

Besides, do the Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies who police Carson have so much time on their hands that they can monitor the interactions of kindergartners? Is the L.A. county district attorney going to press charges against a first-grader?

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